Three teenage boys playing in Lawrence got more than they bargained for when they went hunting for a lost ball in an overgrown patch of brush and weeds.

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Police say the boys, ages 13, 14 and 15, were playing at about 9 p.m. Sunday when their ball rolled into the brush. One boy went hunting for it and instead found a loaded handgun with the safety switch off, meaning it was ready to fire.

Police tell The Eagle-Tribune the boys and two adults, thinking the gun might be a toy, touched the weapon before someone called police.

Police think the gun may have been tossed there by a suspect who fired at officers during a chase on June 16. When the man was apprehended, he was unarmed.